Education Programs | Western Regional Superpave Center

We offer eight graduate courses covering all aspects of the pavement life cycle – from materials and pavement design, to production and construction operations, to acceptance and quality assurance, to field performance and non-destructive testing, to pavement management, maintenance and rehabilitation.

All courses emphasize sustainability, so our graduates are prepared to implement sustainable pavement technologies in their engineering careers or research and development programs.

The pavement engineering and science program in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno has a highly active research program offering graduate degrees at the M.S. and Ph.D. levels. The program is ranked among the top five programs in the world.

Graduate degrees at the M.S. and Ph.D. levels are offered for selectively admitted students based on their advanced courses and research work in the area of pavement engineering and science. A total of 15-20 M.S. and Ph.D. research-funded graduate students are working towards their respective degrees during any given semester. WRSC graduate students take advanced courses and work on multiple research projects under the direct and continuous supervision of the WRSC faculty, who offer them significant expertise in pavements/materials engineering.

About the graduate program in pavement engineering and science

Our program conducts research projects in the areas of pavement materials, design and rehabilitation, and geotechnical engineering. The research projects are sponsored by state Departments of Transportation, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and private industry.

The main thrust of our program is to conduct state-of-the-art research on asphalt materials to improve their long-term durability and their resistance to load stresses, aging, and environmental factors including moisture damage.

Research assistantships

The program offers research assistantships for bright and hard-working civil engineering students meeting the following criteria:

Completed bachelor of science in civil engineering from an accredited university
Cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better
GRE Exam (no minimum score is required for acceptance)
A minimum TOFEL score of 550 paper-based or 79 for Internet-based (for international students only)
Good written and oral communication skills in the English language
Interest in conducting advanced research in the area of pavement engineering and science or geotechnical engineering

The research assistantship offers the following:

Paid tuition
Paid health insurance
Monthly stipend

Learn more about research assistantships on the Graduate School website.